Plasmas can sustain longitudinal electron plasma waves with very large accelerating electric field, polarized along the propagation direction and with a phase velocity approaching the speed of light. These physical properties make plasma an ideal medium for acceleration of charged particles with very large accelerating gradient, orders of magnitude larger than in conventional accelerators. 
Several milestones have been achieved so far in this direction, with a range of different approaches differing mainly for the technique used to drive excitation of the electron plasma wave and the electro n injection mechanisms. Due to the progress in all these areas, plasma acceleration is gradually becoming a solid approach to high gradient acceleration of charged particles with research moving fast towards the demonstration of reliable operation of a new generation of plasma-based radiation sources.
EuPRAXIA is an H2020 Infrastructure Design Study project that aims at delivering a conceptual design report for the worldwide first high energy plasma-based accelerator that can provide industrial beam quality and user areas. It is the important intermediate step between proof-of-principle experiments and ground-breaking, ultra-compact accelerators for science, industry, medicine or the energy frontier. The Intense Laser Irradiation Laboratory’s effort for the EuPRAXIA project is twofold. On one side we are responsible for the delivery of the PW-kW laser beamlines required by the EuPRAXIA installation. In addition, we are developing a novel laser-wakefield acceleration scheme capable of delivering the high quality electron bunch required by EuPRAXIA.
Recent ILIL publications on the project
[1] R. W. Assmann, et al, including from ILIL: F. Brandi, G. Bussolino L. A. Gizzi, P. Koester, L. Labate, D. Terzani, P. Tomassini, EuPRAXIA Conceptual Design Report, The European Physical Journal Special Topics 229, 3675–4284 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2020-000127-8
[2] P. A. P. Nghiem , R. Assmann, A. Beck, A. Chance, E. Chiadroni, B. Cros, M. Ferrario, A. Ferran Pousa, A. Giribono, L. A. Gizzi, B. Hidding, P. Lee, X. Li, A. Marocchino, A. Martinez de la Ossa, F. Massimo , G. Maynard, A. Mosnier, S. Romeo, A. R. Rossi, T. Silva , E. Svystun, P. Tomassini, C. Vaccarezza, J. Vieira, and J. Zhu, Toward a plasma-based accelerator at high beam energy with high beamcharge and high beam quality, Phys. Rev. Acc. Beams 23 , 031301 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.23.031301
[3] P. Tomassini, D. Terzani, F. Baffigi, F. Brandi, L. Fulgentini, P. Koester, L. Labate, D. Palla and L. A. Gizzi, High-quality 5 GeV electron bunches with resonant multi-pulse ionization injection, Plasma Physics and Contr. Fusion, 62, 014010 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6587/ab45c5
[4] Davide Terzani, Pasquale Londrillo, Paolo Tomassini, and Leonida A Gizzi, Numerical implementation of a hybrid PIC-fluid framework in laser-envelope approximation Journal of Physics Conference Series, 4th European Advanced Accelerator Concepts Workshop 15-20 September 2019, Isola d’Elba, Italy. Edited by A. Cianchi et al., https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1596/1/012062
5] Paolo Tomassini, Davide Terzani, Luca Labate, Guido Toci, Antoine Chance, Phu Anh Phi Nghiem, and Leonida A. Gizzi , High quality electron bunches for a multistage GeV acceleratorwith resonant multipulse ionization injection, Phys. Rev. Acc. beams 22 , 111302 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.22.111302[6] Fernando Brandi and Leonida Antonio Gizzi, Optical diagnostics for density measurement in high-quality laser-plasma electron accelerators, High Power Laser Sci. and Eng. 7, e26 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1017/hpl.2019.11
[7] L.A. Gizzi, P. Koester, L. Labate, F. Mathieu, Z. Mazzotta, G. Toci and M. Vannini, Lasers for Novel Accelerators, Journal of Physics Conference Series, 10TH INTERNATIONAL PARTICLE ACCELERATOR CONFERENCE (2019), https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1350/1/012157
[8] P. Tomassini, S. De Nicola, L. Labate, P. Londrillo, R. Fedele, D. Terzani, F. Nguyen, G. Vantaggiato, L.A. Gizzi, High-quality GeV-scale electron bunches with the Resonant Multi-PulseIonization Injection, Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research A 909 , 1-4 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2018.03.002
[9] G. Vantaggiato, L. Labate, P. Tomassini, L.A. Gizzi, Modelling of pulse train generation for resonant laser wakefield acceleration using a delay mask,
Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research A 909 , 114 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2018.02.024
[10] L.A. Gizzi, P. Koester, L. Labate, F. Mathieu, Z. Mazzotta, G. Toci, M. Vannini, A viable laser driver for a user plasma accelerator, Nuclear Instruments and Methods, A, 909, 58-66 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2018.02.089
[12] Paolo Tomassini, Sergio De Nicola, Luca Labate, Pasquale Londrillo, Renato Fedele, Davide Terzani, and Leonida A. Gizzi, The resonant multi-pulse ionization injection, Physics of Plasmas 24, 103120 (2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5000696
